Sunday, June 20, 2010

18th century German Mourning Chocolate pot I got today

1790 Limback chocolate pot with 18th c Chinese export cups

The latest addition to the family is a very rare museum quality late 18th century porcelain Chocolate pot made by the Limbach porcelain factory in the Thuringia region of Germany. Circa 1790. This rare pot is painted with sentimental mourning scenes of widow and children at a grave {possibly a husband- father} . This rare piece would have been a commission piece by a wealthy person. This piece is quit rare as porcelain of this time was very expansive to own, personalized commissioned morning pieces of porcelain are even rarer. The Limbach porcelain factory was founded in 1762 and made porcelain until about 1850. 18th century Thuringia porcelain is very rare now and extremely hard to find.

Neoclassical shaped chocolate pot with Greek handle. Hand painted memorial medallion on both sides. One side shows a miniature round painting of woman and children strewing flowers by a Neoclassical urn with inscription in German with beautiful landscape in background. Bordered in black for mourning with gold gilt olive branch at the top. The other side depicting lady in classical dress making flower wreaths seated under a tree with basket by her side. The girl also making flower wreaths and the boy holding one up. Stone with inscription in front and church in distance. The pot is trimmed in delicate gold gilt with scattered gold sprigs. It is marked on the bottom with the Limbach pink clover leaf.

The region of Thuringia in Germany had quit a few porcelain factory's by the end of the 18th century. They were known as Thuringia porcelain. Some of the factorys were Gotha, Wallendorf, Limbach, Volkstedt, Rauenstein, Kloster Veilsdorf plus many more. The Wallendorf and Volkstedt factory's are the only two that are still making porcelain today. The porcelain of this region has a grayish tent to the paste and tends to be not as fine in quality as more well known German factory's such as KPM and Meissen. Pieces from Thuringia have personal charm that is missing in some of the bigger well known German factory's. This is mostly because this porcelain was not made for Royalty or aristocrats but for the growing bourgeoisie. This charm is what makes them very collectible.

Mourning family making flower wreaths

My best friend Don who lives in New Orleans found this piece in a shop for me. The dealer had bought it at a market in New York city. Because of the mourning scene { He knows I collect early mourning items} He called me and describe the pot. It is in perfect condition but missing it's lid. Because of the age, quality, rare factory and mourning scene I decided to buy this piece of porcelain unseen. It just arrived today, over a month after I bought it, brought to me by friends visiting New Orleans.

About Me

I'm a antique dealer and Historical Folk artist. I created this blog to document and highlight my artwork along with my day to day life as a Artist, Antique dealer and collector. My favorite two periods in history are France's Ancien Régime, the time of French Queen Marie Antoinette 1770-1789 and the antebellum period of the American South 1830-1860. Both of theses periods ended tragically with war. I intend to explore furniture, architecture, decorative arts, culture, history, fashion and the people that made up these two fascinating periods in time. I recently moved back to my roots of Mobile, Alabama after living away for 17 years. Come and explore the restoration of my turn-of-the century Art's and crafts bungalow into a Antebellum show place.